Executive Summary:
Today decentralized application (DApp) platforms like Ethereum, Cardano, and NEO implement contractual governance models unique to their own technology and smart contract parameters. While they share similar values (e.g. smart contracts are efficient tools for disintermediating 3rd party costs), they do not share a global standard for recording, assigning or licensing the IP rights critical to effective smart contract governance. Set out to align “the fundamental mismatch between current IP law and the web,” the COALA IP protocol excels at unifying technical specification frameworks and intellectual property (IP) rights reference models (RRM). As a Free and Open Source (FOSS) decentralized protocol, COALA IP lays the foundation for automating IP attribution, licensing, and discovery with blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLT).

Every day cryptocurrency and blockchain startups in the U.S. face a lingering regulatory question, “how do you fit a square peg in a round hole?” Here I summarize how regulatory uncertainty affects blockchain development, what last week’s SEC commentary means for cryptocurrencies, and explain how decentralized applications are positioned within today’s regulatory landscape.

In Developing Blockchain Standards for the Decentralized Web, I wrote about 3 core use cases that will help operationalize Web3 in the coming years. Here I explore decentralized identity (DID) solutions and why blockchain interoperability matters. In my next article, I will focus on today’s regulatory landscape and how decentralized IDs are positioned to interoperate with current regulations…

While the volume, variety and promise of decentralized projects has surged since 2009, the current status of Blockchain ISOs leaves mainstream development open ended. Here are 3 core use cases that I believe will help operationalize Blockchains and Web3 (the decentralized web) in years to come. What use cases do you have your eye on?